Convex pencils of real quadratic forms (Q1930547)

The paper studies the topology of the set \(X\) of the solutions of a system of two quadratic inequalities in the real projective space \(\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^n\). The author describes first a simplified version of a method based on a certain filtration due to \textit{A. A. Agrachev} [J. Sov. Math. 49, No. 3, 990--1013 (1990); translation from Itogi Nauki Tekh., Ser. Algebra, Topologiya, Geom. 26, 85--124 (1988; Zbl 0719.58006)] and applied recently in [\textit{A. Agrachev} and \textit{A. Lerario}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 105, No. 3, 622--660 (2012; Zbl 1277.14046)] towards the study of systems of quadratic inequalities. The Euler characteristic of \(X\) appears to be related to that of the filtration. This relation is applied here in case of two inequalities and yield explicit formulas for the Betti numbers of \(X\), for those of its double cover in the sphere \(S^n\) and moreover for level sets of homogeneous quadratic maps to the plane. As an application to the classical convexity theory, the author shows the sharp bound for the total Betti number of \(X\) (called \textit{homological complexity}) \(b(X)\leq 2n\), namely for odd \(n\) this bound is attained only by a singular \(X\). A bound on specific Betti numbers is proven in the nondegenerate case: \(b_k(X)\leq 2(k+2)\).